Number 45 (december 2020)

Videos on social networking sites and corporate blogs: analysis of the usage and interactions of Catalan public libraries during the first month of confinement of COVID-19

 

[Versió catalana][Versión castellana]


Juan-José Boté-Vericad

Professor del Departament de Biblioteconomia, Documentació i Comunicació Audiovisual           
Centre de Recerca en Informació, Comunicació i Cultura (CRICC)           
Universitat de Barcelona

María-José Sola-Martínez

Bibliotecària           
Diputació de Barcelona

 

Abstract

The main objective of the article is to study the presence of videos in the social networks and corporate blogs of Catalan public libraries during the first month of lockdown (from 13 March to 14 April, 2020). It explores whether libraries created videos or shared them on social media, and defines their typology and the channel in which they were published. A preliminary step is to determine whether Catalan public libraries were active on social networks during this period, before characterizing the kinds of content disseminated.

To carry out this analysis, an open access data set was created using inclusion and exclusion criteria and based on information held by the Catalan government: geographical data, the name of the library, and its social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube) and blogs. To evaluate the publications, two types of content were defined (external and internal). A rating scale was created (A to D) and the videos were grouped into five types (interviews, tutorials, entertainment, reviews, and Live Streaming).

Of the 507 records included, 372 (73.37 %) were active; of the 886 profiles analysed, 797 (89.95 %) were active, and of the 4,377 videos studied, the most frequently shared were entertainment videos (3,110, 71.05 %).

The conclusions section highlights information on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter that show how the video format is used in Catalan public libraries. 

Resum

El propòsit principal d'aquest article és estudiar la presència dels vídeos als perfils de les xarxes socials i els blogs corporatius de les biblioteques públiques catalanes durant el primer mes de confinament (del 13 de març al 14 d'abril de 2020) amb un doble objectiu. El primer és saber si han creat o difós vídeos a les xarxes socials. El segon és delimitar-ne la tipologia i concretar el canal on s'han publicat. Com a pas previ, cal saber si les biblioteques públiques catalanes han estat actives a les xarxes socials durant aquest període independentment del contingut difós.

Per a realitzar aquesta anàlisi s'ha creat un conjunt de dades d'accés obert, que compta amb criteris d'inclusió i exclusió, partint d'un fitxer de la Generalitat de Catalunya, que inclou dades geogràfiques, el nom de la biblioteca, els seus perfils de xarxes socials (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter i YouTube) i blogs. Per a avaluar les publicacions s'han definit dues tipologies de contingut, extern i propi, s'ha creat una escala de valoració (d'A a D) i s'han agrupat els vídeos en cinc tipologies (entrevistes, tutorials, entreteniment, ressenyes i live streaming).

Sobre els resultats obtinguts cal comentar que, dels 507 registres inclosos, 372 (73,37 %) han tingut activitat; dels 886 perfils analitzats, 797 (89,95 %) han estat actius, i dels 4.377 vídeos estudiats, els més compartits han estats els d'entreteniment (3.110, 71,05 %).

En les conclusions es detallen alguns aspectes observats a YouTube, Facebook i Twitter per a conèixer com es treballa el format vídeo a les biblioteques públiques catalanes.

Resumen

El propósito principal de este artículo es estudiar la presencia de los vídeos a los perfiles de las redes sociales y los blogs corporativos de las bibliotecas públicas catalanas durante el primer mes de confinamiento (del 13 de marzo al 14 de abril de 2020) con un doble objetivo. El primero es saber si han creado o difundido vídeos en las redes sociales. El segundo es delimitar la tipología y concretar el canal donde se han publicado. Como paso previo, hay que saber si las bibliotecas públicas catalanas han sido activas en las redes sociales durante este periodo independientemente del contenido difundido.

Para realizar este análisis se ha creado un conjunto de datos de acceso abierto, que cuenta con criterios de inclusión y exclusión, partiendo de un fichero de la Generalitat de Cataluña, que incluye datos geográficos, el nombre de la biblioteca, sus perfiles de redes sociales (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter y YouTube) y blogs. Para evaluar las publicaciones se han definido dos tipologías de contenido, externo y propio, se ha creado una escala de valoración (de A a D) y se han agrupado los vídeos en cinco tipologías (entrevistas, tutoriales, entretenimiento, reseñas y live streaming).

Sobre los resultados obtenidos hay que comentar que, de los 507 registros incluidos, 372 (73,37 %) han tenido actividad; de los 886 perfiles analizados, 797 (89,95 %) han sido activos, y de los 4.377 vídeos estudiados, los más compartidos han sido los de entretenimiento (3.110, 71,05 %).

En las conclusiones se detallan algunos aspectos observados en YouTube, Facebook y Twitter para conocer cómo se trabaja el formato vídeo en las bibliotecas públicas catalanas.

 

1 Introduction

In early January, 2020, a new and highly infectious coronavirus detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan aroused media interest (CCMA, 2020). The World Health Organization (hereinafter WHO)  named this virus from the SARS family as COVID-19 (WHO, 2020). Its rapid spread around the world triggered a state of emergency by the Spanish Government on March 14th, 2020 (Gobierno de España, 2020), with the consequent reduction of citizen mobility and the closure of nearly all institutions and businesses, including information units.

The first news about the impact of COVID-19 on the information sector was the postponement, cancellation, or change of modality of events for all audiences, from face-to-face to online, both nationally and internationally, as evidenced in the Col·legi Oficial de Bibliotecaris-Documentalistes de Catalunya’s schedule (COBDC, 2020). Various international library associations, such as the International Federation of Library Associations (hereinafter IFLA; IFLA, 2020), the Association of College and Research Libraries (hereinafter ACRL; ACRL, 2020) and the American Library Association (hereinafter ALA; ALA, 2020a), began publishing news about the closure of libraries, as well as recommendations and resources for professionals during lockdown.

A project called COBIB-public shows the approach taken by Spanish public libraries, including those in Catalonia (Lazaro-Rodriguez, 2020). This project observed 760 Spanish digital news articles about public libraries from the beginning of January to the end of May, 2020.

When the state of emergency was declared in Catalonia, the authors of this study (who are also users of public and university libraries) were notified of the first effects of the lockdown: the inability to access library services, the automatic extension of due dates of materials on loan to a new date which coincided with the anticipated end or renewal of the state of emergency, and the creation of online resources by libraries.

Catalan public libraries, the subject of this study, appeared in the media for various reasons during the first month of lock-down, and saw a significant increase in borrowing through the eBiblio platform (Ajuntament de L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 2020). The libraries also received publicity due to their various initiatives to promote the book sector and public libraries. Their promotional activities highlighted the book purchasing grants of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2020b) and the Barcelona City Council (Ajutament de Barcelona, 2020), with which they supported local bookstores, and the virtual celebration of various events on social media such as the #diamundialdelapoesia and activities using the hashtag #bibliotequesacasa.

In a lock-down situation, such as the one caused by COVID-19, virtual communication with the public has been the main method of communication in many sectors, either through newsletters or social media. In the absence of specific data, it could be assumed that many Catalan public libraries had a presence on at least one social networking site (SNS) before 14 March 2020.

According to the report Estudio Anual de Redes Sociales 2019 (IAB, 2019), the “YouTube strength” was evident that year, with 57 % of respondents reporting that they watched videos, making it the second most frequent activity done by social media users.

Catalan public libraries used videos on social media to communicate with Internet users before the advent of COVID-19. Videos were shared directly, such as in Instagram stories, or edited, such as a tutorial explaining how the library catalogue works.

During the lock-down, Catalan information professionals were able to do part of their work remotely, and, among their tasks, they created videos for publication on SNS. Examples can be found by searching for news published on this subject by the specialized libraries of the CSUC (CSUC, 2020) and the public libraries of Manlleu (Ajuntament de Manlleu, 2020). The former developed virtual training on the use of digital resources through videos without specifying where they were disseminated, and the latter posted items such as videos with local authors on social media.

Given this framework, the starting point of this paper is to study the presence of videos on the social media profiles and corporate blogs of Catalan public libraries during the first month of confinement (from March 13th to April 14th, 2020) with a dual goal. The first goal is to determine if they created or shared videos on social media. The second goal is to determine they type of video created and the channel where it was published. To do this, we must determine whether Catalan public libraries were active on social media during this period.

 

2 Literature review

Several institutions started studying the impact of COVID-19 on the cultural sector. A survey by International Council of Museums (hereinafter ICOM; ICOM, 2020) is an international example which aimed to learn how the pandemic affects museum professionals. A survey of various representatives of cultural facilities was conducted in Spain, which incorporated an assessment of the immediate impact of the state of emergency, the development of digital offerings, and examined the role of culture during lock-down (Fundación Contemporánea, 2020).

There have been several surveys involving libraries, including one aimed at academic, school and public library staff (ALA, 2020b). The goal was to learn which aspects of their operations were affected during the lockdown and the changes they anticipate once they reopen. A second example is a survey by the State Library of New South Wales in Australia (State Library, 2020) of its staff, which raises questions about the use of social media in communication. At the time of writing, no study was found in Spain or Catalonia on the impact of COVID-19 on public libraries or on the use of videos in social media. Nevertheless, a blog post was published by the Centre for Resources for Learning and Research at the University of Barcelona that analyses the increase in the use of Twitter profiles in the lock-down period (CRAI UB, 2020).

Bearing in mind the absence of literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the information sector, we have analysed literature regarding two factors that, in the authors’ opinion, are relevant in a time where libraries were closed to in-person visits and become virtual. This means that professionals must rely on social networks and blogs, offering resources, services and activities from their homes in order to maintain connections with their community.

The first factor is the reinvention of information units in order to reach their audiences (real and potential) in this new environment. A similar scenario occurred in the United States in the last economic recession of 2008 to 2013. When American public libraries saw their budgets cut, especially for salaries, technical staff, maintaining collections and even reducing opening hours (Guarria; Wang, 2011). Greek libraries saw a drastic reduction in budgets, so their collections could not be expanded or new equipment acquired, and many libraries merged (Vassilakaki, 2015). In Spain, public libraries used low-cost or free tools to provide new services such as virtual reading, the organization of virtual communities, or the coordination of online learning (Merlo-Vega; Chu, 2015). Therefore, one response was the implementation of new practices to overcome the crisis (García-Gómez; Díaz-Grau, 2011). Catalonia had similar  experiences in the Terres de l'Ebre libraries (Reverté, 2012).

The second factor directly impacts the duties of information industry staff and how these tasks can be done online. More information, about working remotely has been published by some international library associations (ALA, 2020c) or renowned libraries, such as the Library of Congress of the United States (LOC, 2020).

There have not been many publications about the creation of videos and the management of social media on the part of the information sector. Last year in Spain, a review in a related field was published with nineteen professional job profiles from public libraries (Tejada et al., 2019). Although it included profiles linked to the management of social media, such as "librarian / documentalist specializing in health sciences", the only job profile that related to video editing was that of "librarian in charge of social networks ", which adds "edit photos and videos and share them in different online social networks" as one of the duties.

Editorial UOC has published two titles within "The Information Professional" collection that are useful for learning about the management of SNS in information units (Marquina-Arenas, 2012) and the creation and publication of videos on SNS (Boté, 2019).

The introduction discussed the consumption of videos by Internet users (IAB, 2019). At this point, it is necessary to specify whether videos shared on social media are an element that can be used for remote working in a pandemic environment. For this reason, the authors have relied on the classification of videos detailed in the UOC Editorial Book of 2019 mentioned above, in order to obtain a list, set out in Table 1, that can be adapted by public libraries for use during confinement.

Classification

Examples of application in a public library environment

Channels where it can be published

InterviewsWitd a writer; an illustrator; a user; library staff, etc.Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, WhatsApp.
TutorialsAbout tde eBiblio, about open access databases, about specific tools (Word, Gimp, Twitter), about recipes.Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp.
EntertainmentStory time, puppet tdeatre, music concert, poetry readings.Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp.
ReviewsBook reviews, audio-visual material (cinema and documentaries), magazines and specialized websites.Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp.
Live streamingInterviews, activities (story time, puppets), reviews.Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube.

Table 1. Classification of videos according to content

Before classifying videos, a definition was created for those that may be a little more ambiguous. Accordingly, tutorials are videos that teach someone how to do something, for example, how to use the eBiblio service or craft workshops. The entertainment classification includes videos intended to create a sense of community, for example, reading poems and other literature. Reviews are recommendations including book or movie reviews or specialized websites.

Videos need to be edited, which added another aspect which must be considered, as it depends on many factors, such as experience and available resources. For this reason they are not included in Table 1.

 

3 Methodology

The activity analysis of the communication channels of Catalan public libraries took place during the first month of the state of emergency (from March 13th to April 14th, 2020). These dates were also used in a study of the role of digital media in Spain in times of confinement (Lázaro-Rodríguez; Herrera-Viedma, 2020).

The selection criteria for the SNS being studied were both external and internal. We found that the five most-used networks during 2019 in Spain (in order of use) were WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter (IAB, 2019). Among the latter, the operation and features of the SNS themselves were considered. Therefore, three factors were analysed: a) whether the dissemination of content between both actual and potential users is promoted; b) if it facilitates the inclusion of content in video format, either natively (YouTube) or embedded (Twitter), and c) if it facilitates communication and interaction with content creators (comments, likes and dislikes, etc.) or incorporates any other communication tools such as surveys and contests. Evaluating these criteria led to the selection of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

According to the Public Reading Map (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2014), service points are classified into county central libraries, urban centre libraries, local libraries, subsidiary libraries, and mobile library services. In this article, all types of libraries are grouped under the name “public libraries”, "mobile library services" are called “library buses”, and when we talk about all of them, we use the term “service points”.

Once the search for sources of information required to compile the list of service points and their profiles on social media began, it was discovered that some who were active on social media were spreading the news they wrote on their blogs, where they also embedded videos. In fact, some were updating more than one blog at a time. Therefore, blogs were added as a channel of dissemination for this study.

Based on these determinations, it is necessary to have a data set that includes updated data from all Catalan service points and their communication channels.

Although there are websites that provide contact details for Catalan service points, such as the equipment section of Catalonia in Open Data Catalonia’s portal (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2020a), the portal of the Diputació de Barcelona DIBA, (s. d.) or the website of the public libraries of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Generalitat de Catalunya, s. d.), no list was found that includes both these service points and data from their communication channels. A data set was built from the last portal (Boté-Vericad; Sola-Martínez, 2020) and adapted so as to be processable and fields modified as needed.

An additional 28 service points that are part of other networks were added to the initial list of 479 service points, such as the Consorci de Biblioteques of Barcelona, as they are also part of the municipality. Some libraries have several service points inside or outside their municipality, so we will use the term library networks to include the activity they carry out both within the network and individually in order to compare the two roles. The total number of records included in this study is 507.

This lack of data is also an issue when searching for the communication channels used by the service points in the four Catalan provinces. Although the libraries of the Diputació de Barcelona (DIBA, s. d.) provide a directory that includes geographical data, the name of the library, and its channels, the data must be examined individually. The libraries of the Diputació de Girona are grouped under the domain https://www.bibgirona.cat/  (Diputació de Girona, s. d.), which matches with the Generalitat de Catalunya file. Their website provides information on all libraries, as well as their blogs.

It should be noted that the libraries of Tarragona are divided into two geographical areas and therefore, their data are broken down into two web shortcuts:  on the one hand, those that belong to or have links with the Central Library of Tarragona and, on the other hand, the libraries of Terres de l'Ebre (Generalitat de Catalunya, s. d.).

A data set was reused in order to obtain the data of the service points of each centre in the province of Lleida, (Mirassó, 2020) which is part of an unpublished final degree project, with data incorporated into the dataset created for this article.

The difficulty of obtaining updated web shortcuts for the different channels for each service point was a challenge across all sources. In some cases the authors discovered several channels that were not included in the directories they searched. This led to additional searching on the Internet using major search engines such as Google, with different search strings.

Finally, it should be noted that there is no directory listing the SNS for each library network. Therefore, a network-by-network search was performed on each channel.

Once all the data were found for the 507 records, the contents published in the 886 communication channels that were found could be analysed. The dataset includes geographic data, the name of the library, its active SNS profiles (including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube), and finally, its blogs.

In order to determine whether Catalan public libraries were active on their SNS profiles and corporate blogs during the period in question, it is necessary to define the content to be studied. Two types were thus established: external and internal, meaning in-house. In this preliminary phase of the study, content was not solely video, but rather, was defined in a generic way. External content is that which is a collection of links, a publication of non-library activities or, for example, a retweeting of content on the social network Twitter. Internal content was of two types: a) text, images or audio-visual content created by the same library and disseminated on different social networks and blogs; and b) content produced with community participation, such as video book reviews submitted by library users.

Both the external and internal content can be categorized according to the functions, tasks, services or activities carried out at the service points; for example, the #quedatacasaCONCURSAlcanar activity or daily videos accessed by readers.

Once this phase was over, it was deemed appropriate to group the videos into two sets for analysis. The first set included those whose creator was analysed: internal and broadcast Internal videos are those published on the channel of each library or network, for example, a video book review. The latter are those created by other entities or people and shared, for example, the video of a song by a musical group. The videos have been grouped according to the classifications in table 1 (interviews, tutorials, entertainment, reviews and live streaming).

The criteria determining the inclusion or exclusion of the data sets and for analysis are as follows:

Inclusion criteria: in order to have a homogeneous data set we decided that content published during the period studied (text, image or video) should be included, whether published on any of the social networks or one of the blogs analysed, bearing in mind that not all posts require the same effort. Thus, writing a blog post would be considered equivalent to a post on Instagram or Twitter. In addition, those profiles with native or embedded videos were categorized into five groups.

Exclusion criteria: the non-existence of posts during the year 2020 until the end of data collection must be excluded. Service point profiles with private profiles on social media have also been excluded, as they could not be accessed directly to be included in the final dataset.

Social media content has been graded on a scale from A to D. Three factors were considered in grading: a) the added value it gives users, b) the volume of content shared, and c) the level of potential interactivity with users, with A being the highest score and D the lowest. The following is a brief description of the grades used to categorise the publications:

  • A - Post or share more than four videos.
  • B - Post or share three to four videos.
  • C - Post or share a maximum of two videos.
  • D - Post or share minimal content as text or image without using videos.

 

4 Results for the profiles and channels of the Catalan public libraries that were studied

The dataset includes 507 records and 886 profiles, which fit into two groups: a) service points of the Generalitat de Catalunya (479) and b) our own list of libraries belonging to a network or grouped in a network (28). Figure 1 shows records for the libraries’ network, libraries and library buses on a map.

 

Figure 1. Adaptation based on a Wikimedia image (Wikimedia Commons, 2016)

 

Of the 507 records collected, three records (0.59 %) were found in any channel and 372 records (73.37 %) made at least one post during the study period in any of the communication channels that were analysed.

Of the 886 analysed profiles, 797 (89.95 %) had activity during the study period and 89 did not (10.05 %). Figure 2 shows the channels used.

 

Figure 2. Distribution of 797 active profiles by channel (our analysis)

 

The data indicates that Facebook is the social network used most often by the service points, followed by Instagram, Twitter, blogs, and YouTube. No reason is known for the choice of one channel over another; it is assumed that each service point analysed which channels its users prefer and communicated accordingly.

There were challenges with double counting when collating the profiles of each channel: on the one hand, there were records with only one account; on the other hand, those records with more than one account on the same social network may also maintain more than one blog. This means that one profile is the main one for general topics, while the others are for specific topics or activities, such as reading clubs, or specializations. This is shown in Table 2.

 

 

Unique profiles

Additional Profiles

Facebook
288
1
Instagram
190
2
Twitter
168
2
YouTube
42
0
Blogs
109
25
Total
797
30

Table 2. Number of unique and additional profiles

 

Accordingly, as discussed in the methodology section, we have highlighted the number of additional blogs with additional profiles. In fact, there are service points with general and specific blogs by areas or activities (such as the Biblioteca Joan Triadú in Vic) and also grouped blogs in which libraries from the same network or geographic area participate (such as the libraries of the Baix Llobregat Nord).

Figure 3 shows the number of active profiles grouped by the rating category from A to D and, within each, the communication channel used.

Figure 3. Distribution of the 797 active profiles by rating and social network (own analysis)

 

To create the graph, the unique profiles were considered rather than the additional ones, as the analysis includes one profile per record. This is to balance the data and eliminate bias. If a library had more than one profile, we used the main one, as additional profiles tended to be for specialist topics such as reading clubs or cinema groups and their inclusion would distort the data. In any case, there are 30 additional profiles not included in Figure 3, which are meaningless in the data set studied.

Figure 3 shows that most profiles published or disseminated more than four videos (category A, 278) followed by categories D (226), C (189) and B (104). These results indicate that, although having the three factors in the scale from A to D (added value, work and interaction) may seem difficult in a pandemic, most profiles were able to do so. 

If we assess the active channels by category, categories A (135), B (48) and C (60) highlight the ubiquity of Facebook. Contrarily, in category D YouTube (0) stands out for no usage while Instagram (71) is the first channel used and the presence of blogs (66) is in second place. It should be noted that blogs generally have an intense use of text and images, and even embedded videos. Another element to note is that in categories A, B and C, there is a certain balance between the use of Instagram and Twitter.

In total, 4,377 videos were counted and, if analysed more specifically, in figure 4 we have an additional classification: internal and external.

Figure 4. Distribution of 4,377 videos according to form of publication (internal or external) and channel (own analysis).

 

According to this classification, the high number of videos created internally (3,004) stands out, especially given the effort required (technological knowledge, availability of human resources, etc.) to create them. Facebook was the most popular channel, both for internal videos (1,126) and content share externally (943). By contrast, the second channel used is Instagram (773) and in third place, Twitter (263). It should be noted that YouTube does not allow for videos to be shared like in other social networks, such as Twitter. That is why no videos were counted in the shared group. It is also remarkable to see how many blogs insert videos that are not their own (119) to the detriment of Instagram (48), which is understandable given the characteristics of blogs.

El següent aspecte que s'ha analitzat dels 4.377 vídeos anotats és la seva tipologia en funció de la classificació incorporada en la taula 1, tipologia que es pot consultar en la figura 5.

Classifications are as follows in Table 1 for the 4,377 annotated videos that were analysed. Final classifications can be seen in figure 5.

Figure 5. Distribution of 4,377 videos according to classification and channel (own analysis)

 

From the five classifications, the most used was entertainment (3,110; 71.05 %), followed by reviews (833; 19.03 %), tutorials (375; 8.57 %), interviews (46; 1.05 %) and live streaming (13; 0.30 %). The channel choice has varied according to the type of video posted. Facebook (1,577) and Instagram (534) are the leaders for entertainment; reviews tend to favour Facebook (267) and Twitter (216); Facebook (217) for tutorials; YouTube (27) for interviews, and Instagram (10) for live streaming.

The content itself was considered rather than just the quantitative data when evaluating the 4,377 videos, with special attention paid to the videos made in-house by the service points. Tables 3 and 4 share examples of internal content created by service points in both categories A and B. To obtain a broader view, we have tried to show the different publications and channels.

 

Channel

Library

Description

FacebookBiblioteca Trinitari Fabregat (Alcanar)#quedatacasaCONCURSAlcanar, daily videos of readers
InstagramBiblioteca Josep Salceda i Castells (Cambrils)Live video streaming Tuesday and tdursday
TwitterBiblioteca Municipal d'Argentona (Argentona)Poetry readings
YouTubeBiblioteca Municipal Can Coromines (Sant Pol de Mar)video book reviews
BlogBiblioteca Joan Maluquer i Viladot (Artesa de Segre)Video publications: tde Hour of Stories, Tales of Glory, Poetry witd Enric Khan, Recommendations by Eva

Table 3. Five profiles with Category A examples

 

Broadcast channel

Library

Description

FacebookBiblioteca Marià Vayreda (Olot)Story time, recommendations by tde children's reading club
InstagramBiblioteca Pública de la Selva del Camp (Selva del Camp)Story time, video poetry readings
TwitterBiblioteca Ramon Berenguer IV (Almenar)Video poetry readings
YouTubeBiblioteca de Viladecans (Viladecans)Book and short story reviews
BlogBiblioteca La Cooperativa (Centelles)Confined story time, librarians recommendations

Table 4. Five profiles with Category B examples

 

5 Limitations of the study

This study has three limitations. First, it is possible that some profiles were not incorporated into the dataset and remained unanalysed. This is due to the lack of a single, frequently updated, directory listing the contact details and communication channels of each service point and library network. The authors have had to conduct searches to obtain the profile list and create the dataset.

The second limitation is that the authors cannot ensure that no new profiles were created or activities existed after the study dates. An example is the celebration of St. George's Day online, when some service points generated more activity in their communication channels.

Finally, it cannot be guaranteed that profiles did not cease to be active after the study period, that some content was deleted, or even that a channel became private, so that public access has been removed.

 

6 Conclusions

In completing the two objectives outlined in the introduction, we hoped to learn whether the Catalan public libraries were active on social networking sites during the first month of confinement (from March 13th to April 14th, 2020). This was answered in the affirmative, as 886 channels from 507 service points were analysed and 372 (73.37 %) of the libraries published a minimum of one item.

For the first objective, which sought to determine whether videos were created or disseminated on social networks, and the second, which examined the types of videos and the channels used, the answer was positive. The data indicate that 4,377 videos of five main types (interviews, entertainment, tutorials, reviews, and live streaming) were distributed across five channels (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and blogs), either with internal (3,110) or external content (1,373).

Tot i que aquest article no pretén estudiar els continguts dels vídeos, s'ha pogut constatar alguns elements que són rellevants per a conèixer com s'està treballant el format vídeo a les biblioteques públiques catalanes. En aquest sentit, es detallen algunes característiques observades a YouTube, Facebook i Twitter.

Although was not the aim of this study to analyse the content of the videos, we reviewed the key elements to determine how video is being used by Catalan public libraries and examined some features observed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Some of the content posted on YouTube could be improved, namely, the recording of videos with poor resolution, videos with no views, and the absence of certain YouTube features, such as thumbnails, accurate descriptions, or those that take advantage of the 5,000 character limit, the use of playlists, tags, geolocation indicators, subtitles (essential for accessibility) and calls to action (write a comment, sign up for the club, subscribe to the channel). The authors believe that adding these elements to a video on YouTube helps both the SEO positioning in search engines (Lopezosa; Orduña-Malea; Pérez-Montoro, 2020), and the fact that the videos can be found within the same channel, as well as to promote the channel or the video itself on other social networks such as Twitter.

In terms of the use of Facebook, it should be noted that some libraries are very active, such as the Biblioteca Les Voltes (Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona), whose posts redirect all traffic to its blog. An interesting case is the Biblioteca Francesc Balagué (Sant Jaume d'Enveja, Tarragona), where 26 of its 27 videos are stories told by Library staff. As a final highlight, it was observed on Twitter that there are generally more descriptions in the tweets that shared links to YouTube videos than in the YouTube videos themselves.

The production and consumption of video during the first month of lock-down had some very unique characteristics which make it impossible to extrapolate to other periods or segments of the audience. There are few studies during this time period about the consumption of technology that can be extrapolated for use in this article. An example is the report published in June of 2020 analysing the use of social networks in Spain during the month of April 2020 through 1,142 surveys (IAB, 2020), suggesting three facets that can be compared with the results found in this article. The first is that Instagram is in second place in terms of use by the Spanish users, but Catalan public libraries prefer to use Facebook. The second is that 81 % of the networks were used for entertainment (66 % for watching videos or listening to music), which coincides with the mass publication of entertainment videos (3,110) by the Catalan public libraries. In terms of the content of the videos, tutorials were the most viewed type with 56 %, which contrasts with the results obtained in this article, whereby tutorials represented the third most viewed option (8.5 %).

The authors found, after analysing the 4,377 videos, that it would be necessary to add a sixth classification for videos dedicated to information topics (such as current affairs), since this is an area of particular interest to this sector.

The data highlights a link between real and potential users through online publications. This link shows a correlation between interesting initiatives by the libraries and a high degree of involvement with their community. For example, users submitted video book reviews or pictures of their community, as discussed in Tables 3 and 4. Although it is not within the scope of the article, it is necessary to comment that there is some literature about a link that can be made between information providers and their communities. At the international level, we find examples of strategies that support this belief. The Minecraft Gaming Day initiative, carried out by the North Melbourne Library (Cilauro, 2015) was created to link young people with library services through the combination of digital and real play spaces. A second example is the one conducted by the Montana State University Library, where a model for community building was created through social media (Young; Rossman, 2015).

The authors had three main difficulties in conducting this study: a)  the lack of data combining information about all records along with a list of its service points and library networks and their dissemination channels, b) the need to establish objective evaluation criteria in order to analyse the videos that were found, and c) the relationships between the service points and their networks when sharing publications.

One aspect of this study that adds value is in having an open and accessible data set to consult all the libraries, library buses, and a network or group of libraries in Catalonia and their social network profiles and corporate blogs. It should be mentioned that during the writing of the article, the authors found the news of the inauguration of the Biblioteca Corró d'Avall in Les Franqueses del Vallès (Sanchís, 2020) on May 20, 2020, a fact that is now out of date. This shows the fragility of maintaining an up-to-date data set, as there is no single institution in charge of this information.

 

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